The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Lefebvre hails ‘huge three-point’ weekend and says page turned
Dundee Stars playcaller Marc Lefebvre believes his team has turned the corner.
Once again his men earned three points from a tough weekend, which culminated in a 4-3 penalty shots defeat by Belfast Giants at Dundee Ice Arena on Saturday.
The previous night, in-form Stars emerged with a 5-1 victory over Coventry Blaze.
Now they are out of the bottom two after spending 20 game nights in last place, 17 of them in a row.
Lefebvre admitted he went back to the drawing board to get things right.
As a reward, he has granted the players a few days off to recover.
Lefebvre said: “That’s another huge three-point weekend. We took Belfast Giants to a shoot-out, and that’s something.
“We’ve turned a page here and we’ve pushed Cardiff (Devils), Sheffield (Steelers) and now Belfast – clubs with two or three times our budget – to the limit.
“That says something about these guys and I am proud of what they have achieved. They have bought into the new system and produced great overall performances.”
Stars are not on duty until Manchester Storm arrive on Tayside next Sunday (6.30pm), and Lefebvre said: “The guys deserve some time off as we are busy over Christmas and New Year.”
He added: “However, we need to be ready for next weekend as there are no easy games in this league.
“But things are really positive about the club and the guys are happy to come in to work.”
Dundee came from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 thanks to a double from Joey Sides.
Then they went 3-2 behind when Chris Higgins and Derrick Walser netted before Justin Faryna scored with 68 seconds left to level at 3-3.
Extra time came and went and Colin Shields, Steve Saviano, James Desmarais and Alex Foster all missed for Giants in the penalty-shots session.
Mikael Lidhammar, Scarsella, Sides and Faryna all failed for Stars before Blair Riley scored and Felix Antoine Poulin countered.
Michael Forney missed for Belfast and so did Poulin, but Higgins scored to pile on the pressure and Cale Tanaka failed.
Paul Guilcher claimed a double as Dundee Tigers beat Moray Typhoons 8-1 last night. Other marksmen were Stuart Barnett, Ross Bree, Mark Mcleod, Grant Reekie – who set up four goals – Richie Fox and Andrew Henderson.